How Would We Die In Space?

What Happens To Humans When We Are Defenselessly Exposed To The Emptiness Of Space?

You don’t need a lot of imagination to answer this question. You are exposed to a considerable reduction in pressure in space. And everything that is liquid begins to boil and evaporate. Needless to say that our body is 80 percent water and you can certainly imagine the rest.

Due to the lack of pressure from outside, trapped air in the body expands. And if the person holds his breath, the high pressure will cause the lungs to burst. The eardrums can also burst if the connection between the middle ear and mouth is swollen and closed.

The Boiling Blood

After a few seconds in a vacuum, the body fluids also start to vaporize and the blood begins to literally boil. This is because the boiling temperature of water and other liquids also decreases with decreasing pressure. At the height of around 19 kilometers, the boiling point of the water is only 37 degrees Celsius, which is equal to the normal human body temperature. That is the reason that pilots of very high flying military aircraft also wear spacesuits. When the blood begins to boil, the blood pressure regulation system breaks down. The brain no longer receives oxygen and the human being passes out and dies. The water in the cells would also boil and the cells would burst. The gases would collect in cavities of the body, and these too would eventually give way to excess pressure. Though, there is no good way to die but this is certainly at the top of the worst ways to go.

The Risk Increases With Height

The problem is not only for space travelers. The risk of embolism rises sharply for ordinary people at an altitude of 5000 to 6000 meters because you are already in the death zone. In the low earth orbit, around 300 kilometers above sea level, this is absolutely fatal.

But there are living things that can survive this harsh environment, like Lichen or spores of bacteria can even be exposed to the free and unforgiving space. Later when they enter again in the normal atmosphere, they live on.

However, this is unthinkable with living things as complex as mammals. The framework conditions for the living space that we enliven are very tightly knit. There is no question about the fact that space travel is always dangerous. We are entering an extremely hostile environment. Temperature, negative pressure, radiation are only the beginning of the problem and none of them correspond to the normal values of our atmosphere. That’s why the security and protection effort is greatly emphasized upon in space travel.

We have not mentioned it above because that is the least of your worries if you are out in space without a spacesuit. Radiation levels are so high up above that it would cause sunburns within a few seconds. No one has yet died in space. Nevertheless, since 1967 at least 21 cosmonauts and astronauts have died in failed launches and landings of spacecraft. How many victims have failed test flights is not known as well.